Approving Enterprise
Contracts: How It Works

A contract must be approved before it is executed.
Use a single application to approve all types of contracts irrespective
of the type.

Complete the following tasks before you submit a contract
for approval:

Review contract deviations, if any

Validate the contract

Preview printable version of the
contract

The following sequence explains the complete flow
of contract approval, from approval policy setup to contract approval
to contract acceptance:

The system administrator or contract
administrator sets up approval policies and approver groups.

A contract is submitted for approval.

The next approvers can view the approval
task in their My Worklist area.

The contract is reviewed for approval.
Contract review may include the following:

Approver requests more information
for approval.

The application sends the approval
request to the next approver in the hierarchy.

Approver delegates contract approval.

Approver transfers contract approval
to another approver.

The contract is approved or rejected.

Customer or supplier accepts the
contract or requests changes.

View approval status and history.

Set Up Approval Policies and Approver Groups

The business analyst or system administrator sets
up approval policies, and defines the following categories of approvers:

A single or chain of approvers based
on a set of rules

Parallel approvers

Send Automatic Notifications to Approvers

The application automatically sends a notification
to the approver when a contract is submitted for approval. Contracts
pending approval appear on My Worklist.

Submit a Contract for Approval

Attach the following documents to the contract and
submit for approval:

Primary contract document with the
terms and conditions.

Contract documents such as state
of work, drawings, and so on.

Contract deviation, if any, and deviation
justification.

Use one of the following work areas to submit a contract
for approval:

Contract authoring page

Contracts search results

Contracts work area

Dashboard

Validate the contract before submission or the application
automatically validates the contract when you submit it, listing any
errors and warnings. You need to fix the errors but you can ignore
the warnings and continue with the submission. If the contract is
submitted without errors, the application sends it for approval, and
its status changes to Pending Approval.

Note

Withdraw a contract from approval if you want to make
any changes before it is approved. If you withdraw a contract from
approval, the contract's status changes to Draft or Under Amendment
so that you can make changes and resubmit.

Review a Contract for Approval

You need to review a contract in detail to approve
or reject it. Alternatively, go to the History tab to view approval
or rejection details in the approval region and comments in the snapshot
view for the version and approval submission date and time. You can
also ask the contract author for more information if required, or
ask an approver to re-examine and re-approve the contract. Optionally,
delegate or transfer the approval task to another approver.

If you delegate the approval task to another approver,
the assignee approves or rejects the contract on your behalf. If you
transfer the approval task, you are no longer associated with the
approval or rejection.

Note

Get a complete view of the contract from the approval
task details page.

Approve or Reject a Contract

Approve or reject a contract after a complete review
of the contract. Optionally, add comments to explain why you approved
or rejected a contract. If this contract version is submitted again
for approval, the approver can see your comments in the snapshot view.

When you approve a contract, its status changes as
follows:

If the contract requires acceptance,
its status changes to Pending Acceptance.

If the contract does not require
acceptance, its status changes to Active.

When you reject a contract, its status changes as
follows:

If the contract was Pending Approval,
its status changes to Draft.

If a version of the contract was
already Active, and its next version was Pending Approval, its status
changes to Under Amendment.

Accept a Contract or Request Changes

Accept a contract if you agree with the terms and
conditions, and all of its contents. If you want any changes, reject
the contract and request changes.

If you accept a contract, its status changes to Active.
If you reject a contract, its status changes to Draft or Under Amendment.

Note

Optionally, enter your signature in the contract History
when you accept a contract. The History tab of an Active contract
allows you to create, edit, and delete signatures.

View Approval Status and Approval History

From the History tab, view the approval status while
a contract is in approval, and the approval history after it is approved
or rejected. You can view the approval history of the last approval
cycle for a version, by leaving the default Approval Submitted On
date and time in the Approval region.

Frequently Asked Questions for Approving Supplier
Contracts

How can I tell if a contract was rejected?

To check if a contract was rejected, search
for the contract and view the contract history.

You cannot search for a rejected contract by its status
because a rejected contract does not have status of Rejected. If a
contract is rejected, its status changes back to Draft.

To view rejection reasons see the comments section
of the snapshot view.

Why can't I see
all contracts on a worklist?

You cannot see all contracts because the worklist
lists only contracts that require your approval.